1920s: attempt to create ''supra-national'' (value-free?) typefaces--even if not national-identified, still rhetorical. Bauhaus: content and purpose of the text should dictate the design and form of the document.

Typeface persona in theory

Cites Arnheim and Lanham-- active and purposeful problem-solving process when we perceive. Readers make active judgments as they look at the page.

Typeface persona in practice

Practitioners tend to agree with the theory that viz attributes of a doc have a "subtle and often complex impact extending beyond legibility and readability" (208). Typeface "persona" often attributed to physical characteristics -- e.g., sans serif cleaner, more technical, less cluttered. Shape and weight an issue (rounded serifs "friendly" and squared serifs more "official").

did "consistently ascribe particular personality attributes to a given typeface" (213).

Typeface persona: highly significant strong correlations.

Demographic differences: no significant effect, though infeasible to calculate age as only 7 of the 80 were not 18-23. Such varied groups no significant chunks of majors. Some intriguing observations regarding White and Hispanic participant reactions (216) and gender reactions (216)-- only notes "approached significance" (216).

Discussion

shows evidence that ppl "consistently ascribe particular personality attributes to a particular typeface" (217). Did not correspond to previous studies but may be due to diff methodology and passage of time.Study 2: Establishing Text Personas

use a text and analyze its "persona." (explains system for developing text samples). Printed in 12 pt Times New Roman.

strong evidence-- personality attributes to text. may be shaped significantly by demografx. suggest readers of different abilities interact with texts differently.

Conclusions

"The data from Studies 1 and 2 provided strong evidence that readers do consistently ascribe particular personality attributes to particular typefaces and text passages. The typefaces and texts used in the project separated into clear categories according to their personas, and the differences between the categories were substantial. The Study 1 results thus provide strong support for the speculative body of literature that argues that typefaces have personas. Additionally, the data supports theoretical perspectives that suggest that visual language is analogous to verbal language in carrying connotations" (221).

Implications and Directions for Future Inquiry

doc design is problem-solving task

potential importance of vizrhet

now, for tech comm, what is the why? important to understand the reasoning

participants were limitations due to sample-- perhaps conduct with both laypersons and design experts.